Woman wins new trial in manslaughter case

A woman convicted of involuntary manslaughter for a 1998 car wreck gets a new trial. Pamela Christianson’s vehicle collided head-on with another car in northeast Iowa’s Howard County, killing that other driver just before two o’clock in the morning. A sheriff’s deputy had her submit to a blood alcohol test, and she was over the legal limit. A couple of hours later, a trooper on the scene determined Christianson’s car was on the wrong side of the highway, there had been no attempt to stop before the crash and he smelled alcohol in her car. The court ruled the alcohol test was inadmissible because it was conducted before the trooper amassed evidence that alcohol consumption might have been a cause of the crash.